Big B relieved as Bofors whistle- blower holds him not guilty

MUMBAI, Apr 25: With the Swedish whistle-blower in the Bofors case giving him a clean chit, megastar Amitabh Bachchan today said truth had prevailed but nobody could fathom the anguish he had to go through because of the “petulant blame”.

“Time for the fact and the truth to prevail. Many an incident has passed by in life, where the accusation, the improbable was tested against reality. It looked and felt and was believed for that moment in the worst. Fighting a storm at it worst fury would be stupidity,” Bachchan wrote on his blog.

In an interview to website hoot.Org, former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom, who led the Bofors probe in his country, alleged that Indian investigators probing the scandal had during a trip to Sweden in 1990 “planted the Bachchan angle.”

“They gave me a list of names to pursue including the name of Amitabh Bachchan. They also told me they did not trust you entirely because you had refused to link the Bachchans to the kickbacks.

“During that trip to Sweden, the Indian investigators planted the Bachchan angle on DN (Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper). The Bachchans took them to court in the UK and won. DN had to apologise and they said the story had come from Indian investigators,” Lindstrom said.

“25 years after the incident, I read today from one that pioneered accusation and investigation, of innocence. Of the fault that never lay before me,” said Bachchan.

However, the pain of those trying times were quite evident when the superstar said, “No one shall be able to understand or even remotely fathom, the hours and days and months and years of the anguish of petulant blame that I had to go through.”

Bachchan said, “Those that colluded in desperation still abound, without as much as a conscious twitch on their well articulated and fashionably cleaned skins.”

“They won momentarily. But lost ultimately. Lost position and strength and power yes, but importantly their conscience. And today that counts the most!,” he added. (PTI)